The Servile State

The central thesis of this book is that Western countries have largely become Servile States. This might come as a shock to the average modern reader. While everyone can relate to the feeling of being a slave in our modern world of big business and government, they would have a difficult time agreeing to the notion that they are slaves by law. After all, the Westerner has the political freedom to choose whether he wants to work or not. As Belloc explains, freedom is made up of more than just political freedom. True freedom consists in the ability to produce, which by nature requires capital or land in addition to political freedom. Consequently, both capital and land are monopolized by a very few owners. The rest are proletarians that must work for their ability to produce on the owner's terms. The proletarians' political freedom does give them the liberty to bargain for their work, but the proletarian is constrained by the uncertainty of sustenance, so the bargain isn't quite an equal one. "The vast bulk of so-called `free' contracts are to-day leonine contracts: arrangements which one man was free to take or to leave, but which the other man was not free to take or to leave, because the second had for his alternative starvation." Belloc acknowledges that the Servile State requires laws upon which the political freedom is also eliminated. Belloc shows how these laws are in place already in the form of welfare and minimum wages. The modern reader is compelled to question the reasoning here, as he sees how such laws as the minimum wage do not bind either the worker or the owner to the extent of slavery. Still, the underlying principle, that the legal framework for the modern Servile State will be abstract and indirect, as opposed to overt, is convincing. Most importantly, this book does not explain how to avoid the Servile State and to return to what Belloc promotes as the only stable form of society, the Distributive State. To redistribute property would go against the principles that the Distributive State relies upon--the ownership of property. In a confined world, the reader is left to wonder if it is possible after all. This should not discourage the potential reader. There is enough insight in this short volume to enlighten even the most ardent capitalist or socialist, and the fresh perspective offered therein is sure to incite more fruitful motives by all.

The Servile State is perhaps Belloc's most complete exposition of his theory of the various possible forms of political economy. Belloc argues that Western Civilization was first founded on a servile economy, where a very small group of men owned the land, labor, and the capital necessary for production. Yes, they owned the labor. Hence, the appelation, servile. Belloc then argues that Western Civilization gradually became, from this servile state, a distributive political economy. By this, Belloc meant that ownership was widespread among free men. Belloc argues quite convincingly that this is the natural state of man. And it is certainly the state of Western Civilization when the predominat influence on civilization was the Mystical Body of Christ, His Holy Church. Belloc argues that this state of affairs came to be changed with the Reformation, what he, in other books, has styled the "shipwreck of civilization". Focusing on England, in particular, Belloc proves that a small, landed aristocracy became overwhelmingly powerful in this "rising of the rich against the poor" and, later, established the inherently unstable capitalist society. Writing in 1912, Belloc held that the capitalistic society could not endure in its then present form. Looking back, it is how remarkable how prophetic was his vision. He argued that the collectivist form of socialism was, in essence, a chimera. Further, he set forth that the decayed capitalist state would ultimatley revert to a servile status. As we look about us in 2008, it is truly striking how many of the features of the servile state are upon us. One factor that Belloc did not emphacize so much, but that is also dispositive of our current situation is the crushing impact of debt. Acknowledging that point, we can say that Belloc's book is remarkably prophetic, beautifully written, as are all of his works, and still tremendously important. Pick up this important little book. Give it a good and thoughtful read. And be richly blessed by the experience.

In this liberty classic, the Catholic intellectual Hilaire Belloc writes that the present system of capitalism is likely to give rise to something new, the servile state, because of inherent instabilities within it. Belloc defines this state as, "That arrangement of society in which so considerable a number of the families and individuals are constrained by positive law to labor for the advantage of other families and individuals as to stamp the whole community with the mark of such labor we call the servile state." This servile state is a return to the form of pagan slavery that existed in Europe before the advent of Christianity abolished it. Belloc contends that from the original pagan form of slavery, Christianity brought about a new system of society, the distributivist society. In this system, every individual was an owner of property and belonged to guilds which allowed for him to own the means of production. However, the distributivist system failed with the breakdown of the Christian faith. For example, the Reformation allowed for the Crown to confiscate monastic lands. Thus, a small group of indiviudals, the capitalists, came to own the means of production and the property. Belloc does not blame the existence of capitalism on the Industrial Revolution like most other thinkers have. Rather, he sees the problem in society as existing before the Industrial Revolution. Belloc contends that had distributivism not broken down, the Industrial Revolution would have been beneficial to all concerned. The current system of the capitalist state is unstable however, and may give rise to one of two separate things. Reformers have tried to create from the capitalist system a collectivist (or socialist) state. In the collectivist state, private property would be abolished and a group of managers would control all property for the proletariat in trust. Belloc contends that this form of collectivism is likely to give rise to a third thing, the servile state. One way reformers have tried to accomplish this goal is through "buying out" capitalism. Since the state is an older institution than the capitalist owners, it has been considered possible that the state can "buy out" the capitalists. Belloc finds such an idea problematic and shows how this is not possible to occur. Alternatively, the other possibility is for society to return to a distributivist system in which all individuals own property and the means of production. Belloc finds this alternative to be the best, however, he notes that it is unlikely to happen given the current direction in which society is taking and amounts to "swimming upstream". So, while the socialist alternative works within the capitalist system, it will ultimately lead to servitude. Belloc points out examples of how legislation designed to benefit the proletariat has actually increased the development of the servile state. Examples of this include regulation such as employee compensation and minimum wag

In "Road to Serfdom" economist F.A. Hayek recognized the vision of Hilaire Belloc's 1913 book "The Servile State". Writing during World War II, Hayek said: "Even much more recent warnings [about Socialism] which have proved dreadfully true have been almost entirely forgotten. It is not yet thirty years since Hilaire Belloc, in a book which explains more of what has happened since in Germany than most works written after the event, explained that `the effects of Socialist doctrine on Capitalist society is to produce a third thing different from either of its two begetters - to wit, the Servile State." In short, Belloc said, you get the worst of both worlds, a master class (monopolist Capitalists) using the power of government (Socialism) to control workers. There is name for the condition where one group of people uses the force of law to control the work another group of people; it is called "slavery". He wrote this in a much different era and it takes some effort to put aside some of the things we take for granted. Belloc saw things like worker's compensation laws as baby steps toward slavery. They tended to create in the law two classes of people, employers (read "Masters") and workers (read "serfs"). It divided "us" into "us and them". "Servile State" goes full circle, beginning with slavery in the Roman Empire. The slaves had a degree a freedom and could save up money to free themselves, but they were still slaves. Under Christianity the slave became a peasant with rights of inheritance. Christianity introduced a rough egalitarianism ("And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, `Abba, Father.' So that he is no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, an heir through God." - Galatians 4:6-7.) and the breakdown of the empire encouraged rights by tradition (A farmer might say, "Well, we get to keep 2/3 of everything we grow because it's always been that way."). Belloc argues that rights were increasing throughout the Dark Ages. His view of the time may be a bit rosy, but recent scholarship has tended to lighten up that Darkness and vindicate Belloc's reading. Then came the Renaissance and Reformation. The aristocracy began taking commonly held peasant lands. In England the aristocracy used these lands to graze sheep in order to sell the wool. Thomas More, a fierce defender of traditional rights, lamented this at the time in "Utopia": "`Your sheep,' I said. `Once they were gentle and ate little, but now I hear that they have become so greedy and wild that they are devouring the human population." Calvinism's theory of predestination would come along to justify this redistribution of wealth. The rich were rich because they were also the Elect. The newly impoverished peasants were poor because they were the damned. That the "ignorant peasants" tended also to cling to the Old Religion of Catholicism only reinforced this view. The aristocracy took the opportunity to extend their land monop

This is one of the most eudite and insightful books ever written on the topic. Shows how the modern mind has become so thoroughly currupted by Calvinism. The topic is still relevant to-day but since the book was written decades ago, current events could not be cited. To get the full effect from the author's thesis the reader has to read Pat Buchanan's "The Great Betrayal."